The regulated bitcoin (BTC) futures trading platform the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has achieved a major milestone by becoming the second-biggest Bitcoin futures exchange in terms of open interest. While reaching this significant milestone, CME overtook two major BTC futures platforms Binance Futures and BitMEX. It is now only behind the top-ranked bitcoin futures exchange OKEx.
According to the data presented by Skew, the open interest of CME as a bitcoin futures exchange surged high to reach $790 million. While on the other hand, the other two major Bitcoin futures exchanges Binance Futures and BitMEX saw their bitcoin futures contracts’ open interest hitting $718 million and $601 million respectively. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange counted for approximately 15.8 percent of the total global open interest which reached $5 billion.
When the month of October started, CME was standing on the fifth spot among the top bitcoin futures exchanges in terms of open interest. While now with impressive growth on its platform, it has jumped up to the second place and has surpassed Binance Futures and BitMEX which were previously ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively. Binance Futures is a futures trading platform of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume Binance. While on the other hand, BitMEX is a digital currency exchange and derivatives platform based in Seychelles.
The Malta-based digital currency exchange OKEx is the first-ranked BTC futures contracts exchange by the number of open bitcoin futures contracts. As per the data from Skew, the open interest of OKEx reached a peak level of $992 million. The major futures exchange saw this significant rise in the open interest despite the fact that the exchange suspended its withdrawal service last week. The cryptocurrency exchange has not yet resumed withdrawals.
BitMEX, on the other hand, is also facing legal filing in the United States Court by its federal agency the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This might be the reason why it has not been able to secure more institutional interest. Meanwhile, institutional investors continued to jump into the Chicago Mercantile Exchange which has now become the second-largest BTC futures exchange after OKEx.